Trashy call to the catwalk

14 MAY 2008

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Trash will be hitting the Hamilton catwalk in the next few months, but not as you know it!

Entries are now open for Hamilton’s annual Trash to Fashion wearable art awards. Now in its eighth year, the competition is opportunity for design and creativity buffs from Hamilton and the surrounding region to wow audiences with an original piece of wearable art made from recycling and reusing organic and inorganic materials.

This year’s competition categories include: Intermediate Schools

• Come to the Party Create an amazing party outfit. What is the theme for your party? Designers are encouraged to enter garments showing creativity and originality. A unique garment made from waste collected from around our city. Secondary Schools

• Funk the Junk There are no boundaries for designers in this category. The garment created from waste must show originality, uniqueness, imagination, individuality.

• Green, the new Black darling Imagine the future of fashion where we can no longer rely on cheap oil to process and manufacture fabrics. Where transport costs mean companies can no longer use cheap labour in foreign countries to mass produce clothing and then ship these garments to markets on the other side of the world. "Green will become the new black darling" Show us the future of REAL fashion with your truly sustainable fashion item. Your garment will be one of a kind, earth friendly, wearable, washable, durable and stylish. Re-design or re-create real clothing from discarded and salvaged items. Use salvaged resources efficiently to minimise wastage and be innovative in how and what you use. Open Section • Avant — Garbage Designers are encouraged to create garments that are innovative and Page 2 of 2 extroverted. Let your imagination run wild. The creation is to be made from business waste. • Recycled Retro

Use recycled and discarded garments to create a unique design. Search for the pre-loved and out-of-date, cast-offs and off-cuts. The garment must be an original design made from a minimum of four discarded garments. No more than half of any garment may be used.

Hamilton City Council environmental policy advisor Aaron Fleming says Trash to Fashion is a fun and unique way of engaging the community in sustainability issues while educating people about the merits of waste minimisation.

“Alongside event organisers, The Body Shop, Council is proud to sponsor such a vibrant and creative approach to environmental issues. Events like Trash to Fashion take environmental issues out of the ‘socks and sandals’ basket. It’s time to take messages to a mainstream audience and Trash to Fashion certainly does that with a fantastic design twist.

“From youth to the novice and the experienced, this is an event anyone can try their hand at and as previous years have shown there will be some captivating pieces of wearable art hitting the catwalk at the end of it.”

More information and entry forms can be found at www.hamilton.co.nz/trashtofashion Entries close on 7 July with the awards being held at 7.30pm on 26 July at the Founders Theatre.

ENDS

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